1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to garments utilizing a waistband. More specifically, this invention relates to a waistband for pants, skirts and other garments that utilize a waistband, regardless of the type of fabric, which is designed to enable the waistband to adjust to slight variations in waist size, while maintaining structural vertical firmness and thereby making it more functional and comfortable to a wearer. The subject waistband, using conventional pant and dress materials, allows for up to 6% expansion and good recovery as well as vertical, anti-roll, stability. Further, the variable increase in length of the waistband can compensate for shrinkage after washing. The subject waistband also makes pants or other garments utilizing a waistband, such as shorts, skirts, etc., easier to button or secure and maintain a good fit during wear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The circumference of the waist and the length of the inseam represent the sizes in which pants and other garments utilizing waistbands are commonly sold. Presently manufacturers make pants and other garments utilizing waistbands with waist sizes varying in one to two inch increments. These incremental sizes allow most users to find a fit, but require many different sizes to be manufactured and held in inventory. Moreover, in some size ranges, it is common for men's pants to be manufactured in two inch increments, creating the problem of non-fitting garments for those in between two manufactured sizes. Moreover, over time, one's waist size may vary slightly and a certain waist size that once was comfortable may become tight fitting and uncomfortable. Still further, even the process of securing the waistband can be uncomfortable when wearing garments with a standard, non-variable waist circumference.
In the past, pants, skirts and other garments utilizing waistbands have been manufactured, which allow the waistband to stretch. However, garments known in the past have usually required the use of different materials or devices to elongate the circumferential length about the waist. Moreover, the garments of the prior art, with a capability of expanding, are usually easily recognized and distinguishable from garments with a non-expandable waistband due to their visual appearance.
Several patents in the prior art have utilized a stretchable lining material in the waistband. At least one prior patent teaches a waistband that increases and decreases in size by means of construction. However, the stretchability of this device is due to a special waistband liner, which includes a number of elastic strands. Another prior art design utilizes a stretchable banding material to create a stretchable waistband. In yet another design an elastic strip is utilized within a waistband, which reinforces the waistband and is reputed to address unsightly appearance of the garment due to bunching, rolling and twisting.
Other suggested designs include constructing expandable waistbands that can be made of the same fabric or material as the rest of the garment by providing slits in a waistband to accommodate changes in waist size. Another example of an expandable waistband that may be constructed from the same fabric or material as the garment teaches a waist construction, which includes an elongated section of a waistband that joins opposite ends of the waistband and a cut or folded section that joins the opposite edges of the body of the garment, whereby the waist is narrowed or enlarged by selecting alignment of the opposite ends.
In addition to stretchable waistbands, a shirt collar is known, which is capable of enlargement because the fabric of the collar is cut on a bias, allowing the collar to elongate circumferentially around the neck of a wearer. However, this collar invention does not address the specific concerns in waistband construction. Collar construction does not need to address the common waistband problem of vertical stability to prevent rolling over due to the physical girth of a particular wearer. Furthermore, variations in neck or collar size do not vary as much as waist size for a given wearer. A waistband must be able to elongate circumferentially much more than a shirt collar.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple and desirable means of constructing an expandable waistband for pants, skirts and other garments, utilizing a waistband made out of fabric, which may be comprised of the same material as the rest of the garment, and does not utilize slits, folds, or elastic. Moreover, there is a need to enable the size of the waistband to expand or contract to compensate for fluctuations in the waist size of a user, and to allow a garment manufactured in a single waist size to fit persons having different waist sizes, without requiring additional manufacturing steps or producing a noticeably different appearance to the wearer or others who can observe the waistband. Still further, there is a need for a garment waistband that has vertical stability that resists a tendency of the waistband to fold over or roll down during wear.